Film: Farha

Tonight, another film - this, however, was a private screening, organised by The London Palestinian Rights Meetup Group, in association with the Bethlehem Cultural Festival! Showing at the Prince Charles was Farha, the dramatisation of the life of a young Palestinian girl in 1948 - just at the start of the Nakba.. Tickets from Eventbrite again.

Had a very squeaky bus out there.. and when I got there, found there was a queue to join. Which, for once, I was near the front of!

Turned out we were in the downstairs cinema - MCing was Sarah Agha, Irish-Palestinian herself, apparently! who told us that 200 had booked for this showing. We started watching without much preamble - we were a bit tight on time.

This is, apparently, based on the story of a teenage Palestinian refugee that the director's mother met in Syria, when she was but a teenager herself. So - a rather unusual coming of age story, where Farha wants an education, in a society where she is expected to be married off - and soon. She's just on the point of getting what she wants, too.. until the Israelis arrive, and the nakba begins. She has the chance to leave, but refuses to leave her father, who locks her in the pantry for her own safety. Not a bad idea - it's spacious, and there's food. What she sees through the cracks in the door, however, is truly shocking..

It's a powerful film, the entire, highly politicised incident distilled into the experiences of a young, scared girl in a room. It's a great idea - when a story is too big to be told easily, focus on a kernel that contains the essence of the whole. The whole dispossession, sense of loss, and confusion of the state of Palestine can be expressed in the person of this young girl.

Well, in the Q+A, we heard how the director has received death threats, how the Israeli government - which has always denied the atrocities committed at this time - tried to have the film banned. Now really, they should know better - what does that ever do but encourage interest in the thing that they're trying to ban? Netflix bravely went ahead and distributed it, FYI. Glad I came to this - it's been a while since I saw anything really political!

With having to rush there for the start, I needed to eat afterwards - had to be Chinatown, now that I'd walked through it to get to the cinema! So I headed around the corner to New Loon Fung - where service was impeccable, and the honey and lemon chicken - and chicken rolls - as delicious as ever! Good value, too..

Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.. Sadly, of all the films showing locally, however, there's only a couple I'm interested in seeing, and neither is at a time I can manage, what with keeping my mother company in the evenings! Ah well..

On Monday is An Evening Stroll in Fitzrovia, courtesy of a new group, Paul and Tim's Greater London Talks and Walks! So yes, I'll give it a go..

On Tuesday, The Horror Book Club lately advertised an author event, with two female horror writers, at Waterstone's in Trafalgar Square. Tickets bookable in advance - I checked out one of the books as a free Kindle sample, and liked it, so I said I'd go. Pay extra and you can get a book with your ticket - but only one, and it costs more than both together cost on Kindle! So I passed on that option - if I feel like it, I'll order them on Kindle afterwards.

On Wednesday, thinking film again - and despite the new films I've seen advertised, it's still looking like The Blue Caftan, which was always near the top of the list. It's Moroccan, and showing at my local cinema - not that either of those film listings websites seems to think so, so I had to confirm on the cinema's own website! Grr..

And next Thursday, I'm back with TAC for a play called The Last of the Pelican Daughters, at The Courtyard..